Iran will safeguard the JCPOA if it could take advantage of its
benefits, but there should be a full balance between the two sides.

President Hassan Rouhani visited Vienna on the second leg of his first
European journey as the head of the 12th government. The journey
also took him to Switzerland (early July).

Rouhani, in his first meeting with the head of the Swiss Confederation was
promised that Bern would expand cooperation with Iran and ignore the US
sanctions. In his meetings in Vienna with Austrian President Alexander Van
der Bellen, and Chancellor Sebastian Kurz, the Iranian President once again
received assurances that Vienna would not only refuse to reduce the level of
political and trade exchanges with Tehran because of the unilateral US
sanctions, but would also boost bilateral ties.

President Van der Bellen told Rouhani that Austria was determined to
maintain and develop its relations with Iran in all areas. The Austrian
president whose country now holds the rotating EU presidency, added:
“Washington’s secondary and transatlantic sanctions are contrary to the
international law and are violation of human rights, and therefore the
Austrian companies are opposed to it.”

Rouhani, who was greeted at the airport by the Austrian foreign minister,
received an official welcome ceremony at Hofburg Palace by his Austrian
counterpart.

The Iranian delegation also signed four new cooperation agreements with
Austria in the presence of Rouhani and Kurz. These agreements covered
transport, water resources management, renewable energy and mine
cooperation.

Rouhani: US’s JCPOA Withdrawal Detrimental to Washington, Rest of the World

Rouhani, at a joint press conference with his Austrian counterpart, thanking
the host country for the warm welcome accorded to the Iranian delegation,
said talks with the Austrian leaders were ‘constructive’. “After the JCPOA
deal many delegations have been exchanged between the two countries and
today there are hundreds of Austrian companies operating in Iran. The
resolve of the two countries in these negotiations was that we should
continue our trade, economic, cultural, regional and international
relations.”

He hailed the JCPOA as a very important agreement for Iran, the European
Union and the entire world. “The decision the United States has taken is in
the interest of nobody, and this is a decision a government has taken
contrary to its own national interests and contrary to the national
interests of others.”

The President added: “Iran will safeguard the JCPOA if it could take
advantage of its benefits, but there should be a full balance between the
two sides. If the signatories other than the US manage to secure Iran’s
interests we will continue to comply with the deal even without the United
States.”

He said the developments in the sensitive region of West Asia were among
other issues discussed with the Austrian officials. “In this we exchanged
views about Tehran’s actions in the fight against terrorism, helping the
Iraqi and Syrian people, the need to help the Yemeni people and the
destructive role played by certain countries, including the United States
and the Zionist regime.”

Rouhani added: “Full restoration of peace and security to these countries
will benefit the region and the world.”

He said the two sides also held talks about other international issues.
“Iran and Austria share identical views regarding JCPOA, the need to develop
common relations and regional and international issues.”

Van der Bellen: US Sanctions Violate Human Rights

Meanwhile, the Austrian president noted the long-standing relationship
between the two countries and said: “Austria and Iran celebrate 160years of political relations, but relations between the two countries
date back to at least 500 years ago. This year, we celebrate the 60th
anniversary of the establishment of the Austrian Cultural Association in
Tehran and the 25th year of interfaith dialogue. I want to
emphasize that our long-standing relationship is beyond the scope of
economic and political cooperation.”

He added: “I would like to stress that there are many Iranians living in
Austria, some with full Iranian nationality and some others having Austrian
citizenship. I think it is very familiar to you, that about 2,000 doctors in
the Austrian health system are working who have Iranian background.”

He further said: “Now, there are hundreds of Austrian companies operating in
Iran, and Austria and the European Union are doing their best at this
difficult time to create the necessary framework not only for establishing
and sustaining of this cooperation, but to further deepen it.”

Noting that the JCPOA has never been based on the assumption that it would
solve all the problems, the Austrian president said in the opinion of Vienna
the Iran Nuclear Deal has only opened a window to address other issues.

He further stated that he had held extensive talks on a wide range of
bilateral and regional issues with his Iranian counterpart.

Van Der Bellen also regretted that the US had pulled out of the JCPOA deal.
He also voiced regret that Washington was planning to impose new sanctions
against Iran which would also affect Austria.“We
at the EU Commission consider these secondary sanctions to be transatlantic
and a violation of human rights.”

An Old Friend of Iran in the Heart of Europe

The Austrian government is one of the oldest friends of Iran in Europe.
Tehran-Vienna diplomatic ties date back to 160 years ago. These relations
have never been based on imperialist greed but founded on mutual interests
of the two countries. Austria had close relationship with Tehran both before
and after the 1979 Islamic Revolution. The first visit by a European foreign
minister to Tehran after the Revolution was from Austria (Erwin Lanc) and
the first visit of an Iranian foreign minister to Europe was to Vienna in
1987 (Ali Akbar Velayati).

Austria later played an important role in Iran’s nuclear talks as the host
country and during the international sanctions against Iran, it was one of
the few European countries that continued trade and economic relations with
Tehran. At the same time, it hosts nearly 30,000 Iranian students, and as
the Austrian president said at the joint news conference with Rouhani,
nearly 2,000 health care physicians in that country are Iranian nationals.

The then Austrian president Heins Fischer traveled to Tehran immediately
after the Vienna Declaration and before the execution of JCPOA and invited
his Iranian counterpart to visit his country. Although Rouhani’s visit to
Austria did not happen when Fischer was the president but after the change
of government in Vienna and the coming to power of a more conservative
government, Austria still welcomed continuation of relations with Tehran,
until early July this year, the Austrian President and Chancellor greeted
Rouhani in Vienna

During Rouhani’s visit, Austrian statesmen reaffirmed that they will not pay
attention to unilateral US sanctions on Iran and will work to develop
bilateral relations with Tehran.